1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a crossing gate arm assembly which comprises generally tubular members wherein one member has a part thereof removed to impart flexibility to its free end.
2. Prior Art Statement
It is known to provide a solid crossing gate arm assembly having an end section telescope from a main arm for passing under trolley wires. For instance, see the U.S. Pat. No. 494,390 issued on Mar. 28, 1893 to Henry Smith. The end section of the Smith arm is not flexible and the length and weight of the entire assembly is apparently great enough to require a midway support pole. Thus, there is a need for a lightweight crossing gate arm assembly having a flexible end section.
It is also known to provide a flexible plastic pole for use as a crossing guard arm. For instance, see the U.S. Pat. No. 2,874,493, to Henri Mandel issued on Feb. 24, 1959. The flexible pole of Mandel is useful only for short crossing arms of less than eight feet as the weight thereof at greater lengths is sufficient to cause the end of the pole to drape to the ground. Thus, there is a need for an extendable length, lightweight crossing gate arm section having a flexible end.
It is further known to provide a crossing gate comprising a plurality of rigid identical gate modules secured together in an end to end manner, each gate section having a male end and female end. For instance, see U.S. Pat. No. 3,994,457 issued on Nov. 30, 1976 to William Teasel. The identical sections must, of necessity, be rigid and therefore no flexible end is provided. Furthermore, the sections are made of thick walled injection molded polycarbonate and thus the weight of an elongated gate arm is quite substantial. Thus, there is a need for a lightweight, extended length crossing gate arm assembly of substantially equal length members wherein an end member has a flexible free end.
Additionally, it is known to provide a grade crossing assembly comprising an elongated tubular aluminum gate arm provided with alternate stripes of different colors of suitable retro-reflective material and three electrical lamps, one of which is continuously illuminated while the other two are intermittently flashed. For instance, see the U.S. Pat. No. 4,090,685 issued on May 23, 1987 to Spiro Pappas. This tubular aluminum gate arm is rigid in construction and thus there is a need for a tubular gate arm having a flexible free end.
Railway crossing gate assemblies comprising telescoping gate sections having gate lights mounted at any position on the gate arm are available from LandW Industries, a corporation headquartered in Springfield, Mo., or from SafeTran, a corporation doing business from Kentucky and California, however, the telescoping gate sections are heavy rigid box beams. Typically, this construction is common in the industry wherein the length of each section is sixteen feet or more requiring shipment by common carrier. Hence, there is a need for a gate arm assembly having a flexible free end wherein the entire gate arm is lightweight and can be shipped by rapid transit carriers.
Also known in the art is a hinged vehicle gate arm having a first section mounted to an automatic vehicle gate operating mechanism and a second arm attached to the first arm section by a hinge assembly. For instance, see the U.S. Pat. No. 4,531,325 issued on Jul. 30, 1985 to David Phillips. A slanting pivot hinge is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,002 issued on Apr. 7, 1987 to Clifford Everson for causing the end section to rotate upwardly and toward the railway when impacted by a vehicle. The hinged arms described in these two patents basically pivot from the mounting mechanism alongside the roadway and hence are limited to short gate arm sections. Thus, there is a need for an elongated, lightweight crossing gate arm section with a flexible free end.
It is further known in the art to provide a crossing arm arrangement having a signal relay switch circuitry comprising an extensible crossing arm, a plurality of electrically actuated gate lamp fastening means for fastening a gate lamp to any of a plurality of selected locations along the length of the crossing arm and an extensible cable means for electrically connecting a gate lamp to the relay switch circuitry. For instance, see the U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,666,108 and 4,784,356B1 issued on May 19, 1987 and Jan. 24, 1995 respectively, to David Fox. The extensible crossing arm is comprised of rigid sections and thus there is a need for a lightweight, extensible crossing arm having a flexible free end.
It is also known to provide a movable gate arm comprising a stiffening member made of wood encased in a sleeve of extruded polycarbonate. For instance, see the U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,516 issued on Mar. 14, 1989 to Howard Anderson. This gate arm is a single piece and is not flexible. A multiple piece vehicle control arm having a core element and a flexible shell with the core disposed through at least a portion thereof and adapted to breakaway at a mid point is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,563 issued on Sep. 30, 1997 to Alfred Marcum. Though the gate arm has a flexible shell, the core is solid and hence the weight of the gate arm is substantial. Thus there is a need for a lightweight gate arm having a flexible free end.
Still further known is to provide a crossing gate arm assembly which when struck with a vehicle, the gate arm pivots in a horizontal plane about a vertical pivot. For instance, see the U.S. Pat. No. 4,897,960 issued on Feb. 6, 1990 to Barvinek, et al., or the U.S. Pat. No. 5,469,660 issued on Nov. 28, 1995 to Harry Tamenne. In these two patents, the entire arm moves into the path of a train and hence may be damaged by the train before returning to its guarding position across the roadway. Thus, a lightweight gate arm having a flexible free end is needed.
Finally, another known gate arm comprises a two quadrant gate system having a means for extending its length to restrict traffic for each of the two directions of the roadway wherein each gate of the two quadrant gate system may be laterally flexible to allow a vehicle to pass through a lowered gate as a way of escaping an existing safety hazard without breaking the gate or damaging the vehicle. For instance, see the U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,332 issued on Jul. 31, 2001 to Robert Almblad. The entire gate assembly is laterally flexible which is unstable in most environs where a wind load is imparted to the arm causing the flexible portion to fail from vibration and thus there is a need for a lightweight gate arm which has a flexible end section.
It is an object of this invention to provide a crossing gate arm assembly comprising at least two generally rectangular tubular members wherein an outboard or end tubular member has one end thereof engagable with a portion of another generally tubular member of the crossing gate assembly wherein the opposite end of the end tubular member has a part of the tubular member removed to impart flexibility to the opposite end.
It is another object of this invention to provide a crossing gate arm assembly comprising at least two generally tubular members wherein an end or outboard tubular member has one end thereof engagable with a portion of a crossing gate assembly and an opposite end having a part of the tubular member removed to impart flexibility to the opposite end wherein the end tubular member comprises two U-shaped channels wherein the legs of a smaller of the U-shaped channels are confined within the legs of a larger of the U-shaped channels wherein the smaller of the U-shaped channels may move longitudinally with respect to the larger of the U-shaped channels. The U-shaped channels are preferably frictionally affixed together.
A feature of this invention is to provide a crossing gate end arm section for a crossing gate arm assembly wherein the end gate arm section comprises two U-shaped channels joined together into a box beam with a part of an end of the side edges of the two U-shaped channels removed to impart flexibility therein wherein one of the U-shaped channels has a slot disposed through a remaining segment of the free end and the other of the U-shaped channels has a hole disposed through a remaining segment of the free end with the hole aligned with the slot. A fastener is preferably loosely placed in the slot and the hole to bring the remaining segments of the U-shaped channels into close proximity to allow the free ends to be flexible in a direction transverse to the plane of movement of the crossing gate arm assembly.
Another feature of this invention is to provide a crossing gate arm assembly rotatably mounted on a crossing gate operating mechanism, the crossing gate operating mechanism moving the crossing gate arm assembly in a plane of movement from a raised, substantially vertical storage position to a lowered substantially horizontal guarding position wherein the crossing gate arm assembly comprises a outboard or end tubular member, such as a closed box beam, the outboard or end member having one end telescopically engagable with at least a portion of at least one other generally tubular member, the outboard or end tubular member having a part of the narrow side edges of the box beam removed from a free end opposite the one end of the outboard or end tubular member to impart flexibility to the free end to prevent damage to the crossing gate arm section when the free end is impacted by an automobile attempting to circumvent the guarding position of the crossing gate arm assembly.
It is a major attribute of this invention to provide a crossing gate arm assembly comprising at least three generally tubular members wherein the tubular members are substantially equal in length to permit storage of the crossing gate arm assembly in a minimum size wayside control house or to permit cartage of the crossing gate arm assembly on a pickup overhead rack or transport within the bed of a standard pickup truck.
A significant characteristic of this invention is to provide a crossing gate arm assembly comprising at least three generally tubular members wherein the tubular members are approximately eight feet six inches in length.
An important feature of this invention is to provide a crossing gate arm assembly comprising at least three generally tubular members wherein an end tubular member has a weight of approximately 6.5 pounds thus greatly reducing the weight of the end member and hence the entire gate arm assembly thus allowing a fully extended crossing gate arm to come to rest about 12 inches higher above the roadway than prior art gate arm assemblies and also providing a reduced rotational mass thus reducing wear upon the operating mechanism raising the gate arm assembly.
Yet another important feature of this invention is to produce a crossing gate arm assembly comprising four generally tubular members wherein the weight of the end tubular member is reduced thus reducing the entire shipping weight of the crossing gate arm assembly allowing shipment of the crossing gate arm assembly by rapid transit carriers.
Another feature of this invention is to provide a for a crossing gate arm assembly having one crossing gate arm section comprising a generally tubular outboard or end member wherein the outboard or end member has one end telescopically engagable with at least a portion of at least one other generally tubular member and wherein the gate arm section comprises two U-shaped channels joined together into a box beam, the crossing gate arm section having at least one warning light assembly removably affixed to the outboard or end tubular member and at least one warning light assembly removably affixed to the one other tubular member. Alternately, a part of the narrow side edges of the box beam is removed from a free end opposite the one end wherein the one warning light affixed to the outboard or end tubular member is mounted within the remaining segment of the free end. Preferably, the warning light assembly has reversible connectors on opposed sides thereof for establishing one of a plurality of light flashing sequences to the warning lights mounted to the crossing gate arm assembly, however, it is also within the scope of this invention to internally wire each warning light assembly to alter the light flashing sequences of the warning lights.
Another significant object of this invention is to provide a crossing gate arm assembly rotatably mounted on a crossing gate operating mechanism, the crossing gate operating mechanism moving the crossing gate arm assembly in a plane of movement from a raised storage position to a substantially horizontal guarding position, the crossing gate arm assembly comprising generally tubular members of substantially equal length but progressively smaller cross section wherein an outboard or end tubular member has one end telescopically engaged within at least a portion of a tubular insulating member, the insulating member having a first end telescopically engaged within at least a portion of an inboard or mounting tubular member wherein the outboard tubular member has a flexible free end and wherein the outboard, insulating and mounting tubular members are longitudinally extendable and affixable together in any length from the length of one of the members plus the free end to a fully extended length equal to the sum of the lengths of the end, insulating and mounting tubular members.
Finally, it is an object of this invention to provide a gate arm section which is torsionally flexible for increased durability in windy conditions.